The Fox Cities are a collection of cities, villages and towns along the Fox River, which resides in Northeastern Wisconsin.   I know, it doesn’t seem like thrilling stuff, basically, they’re towns along a slow moving river.  Yet, when you unearth the stories of these communities and the legacies their former inhabitants left behind, its pretty cool subject matter.  I mean, this area was first unveiled by French explorers almost four hundred years ago.  While the towns are not that old, it’s nice to fancy what the explorers saw in contrast to what you find today.  Did they know they were paving the way for a metropolitan area that would champion art, history, education and first and foremost, family?  I think they would have been pretty proud they ignited the immigration to this collection of municipalities.

With that said, I put together a list of places, in these communities, I especially like.  There’s tributes to famous and infamous residents, there’s interesting symbols of  heritage and there’s even a curious tribute to industry.  Of course, there is a ton more than I will mention, like the PAC and the Wisconsin International Raceway, but here’s a few Ideas for visitors to this portion of Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

In Northeast Wisconsin, professional sports are fairly limited.  Among some choices are the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, a junior hockey team known as the Green Bay Gamblers or if you’re in Appleton, minor league baseball.  The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are a minor league affiliate for the Milwaukee Brewers, so if you love the Brewers you could possibly see a future star cutting his teeth on the lower rungs of the ladder. It’s not too early to buy a Christmas package and put tickets into a young baseball lover’s stocking.

Click here to learn about our June experience.

Minor League Entertainment in Appleton

  History Museum at the Castle.

Appleton has had some rather unique individuals call this city, the largest of the Fox Cities, home.   One, if your into Red Scare politics of the 1950’s, would be senator Joe McCarthy.  His bust is permanently on display among the halls of what was once a Masonic Temple.  Also, and probably more noteworthy, the famous escape artist and illusionist Harry Houdini once called Appleton home.  Most of the upper level is full of fun artifacts, interactive exhibits and information you probably didn’t know about this enigmatic character.

I’ve included two blogs about the castle.  The first entry is simply an overview of my first visit.   The second is about the current exhibit that has found a home in the museum.

History Museum at the Castle-Mystery and lore

An Excellent Guitar Exhibit in Appleton

  The Grignon Mansion

It’s approaching Christmas time.  So, I’ll throw in a fun place to visit during the holidays.  The Grignon Mansion offers a tour of the Charles Grignon home, which was known as the Mansion in the Woods, complete with musicians playing Victorian instruments to set the mood.  If you top it off with a carriage ride, hot chocolate and crafts, it turns out to be a festive Victorian endeavor.

Christmas at the Grignon Mansion.

  An Authentic Dutch Windmill.

Little Chute Wisconsin, despite the half English half French name, is actually originally a Dutch settlement.  To celebrate it’s history, some daring souls erected an authentic old world windmill right on Main Street.  It can actually grind wheat into flour, as it harkens back to the technology of the 1850’s in Holland.  Even if it has been constructed by the finest Dutch craftsman, who have been in the industry for generations, the windmill is practically brand new.  To see something that unique, rising towards the sky, in a quaint Midwestern town is actually a welcomed oddity.

Read this to get a better picture of what you might see.

The Ultimate Symbol of Dutch Heritage in Little Chute, Wisconsin

The Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass

I remember discovering this place.  Glass seemed like such an ordinary thing that it struck me as peculiar.  Yet, when I walked in this museum’s fashionable halls, which once played home to Mrs. Evangeline Bergstrom, I couldn’t help but be stunned by her collection.  The museum has added exhibits after her passing, finding colored and shaped pieces that can blow the mind. Some of the older glassworks in this free institution have survived centuries and originated in different continents.  I can’t say how incredible that seems to me. I find I can’t make a dish set last ten years in my own house.

Read this for a detailed tour.

My Wanderings in a Glass Museum

The Hearthstone Historic House Museum

This is a Victorian mansion with a twist.  It was the first home to have been lighted by hydro-electric power.  That novelty, coupled with interesting tales, make this a delightful tour.  Its a standard Victorian home for someone with means, complete with a scullery and servants quarters.  In the basement, there is an interactive demonstration on hydroelectric  power.

This link will tell you all about it.

Appleton’s Hearthstone Historical House Museum-the Victorian age ‘house of the future’

Bubolz Nature Preserve

In Wisconsin, we’ve had snowfall totals that smashed any previous record for the month of November.  Still, we can’t do much with it.  Being fall,  accumulations melt due to above freezing temps before the next 1-3″ falls to the ground. That being said, I feel that we’re in for some white wintry weather in the upcoming months.  So, I thought I’d make a suggestion for an outdoor recreational area that mixes modern and rustic fashionably well.  What I like about this lodge, versus others, is that they rent cross country skis.  Good luck finding another place that can say that!

Snowshoeing is also in the mix!  You click on this link to read about our very cold day of traditional Cross Country Skiing.

Skiing the Bubolz Nature Preserve

Wiess Earth Science Museum

This museum is full of fun rocks, minerals and fossils.  It’s tiny, but the admission price is so cheap that it might as well be free.  What’s great about this place is that if you have a young Dinosaur lover, they’ll think it’s pretty cool.  There is a giant skull of a T-Rex and dinosaur eggs in this little spot…you could tell them they’re about to hatch any moment!

To read a general overview, click this link

Weiss Earth Science Museum

  And that’s my recap for the Fox Cities.  Again, there’s tons to do in the area.  So don’t limit yourself to my suggestions alone.  I also have blogs on bars and restaurants in the vicinity.  So, if you’re looking for other suggestions go to karasexplore.com.

Here’s some great drinking and dining options for you to try also!

Hanging Out at the ‘Stone Arch Brew Pub’

A Couple of Cozy Spots for a Brew and Some Eats

  Safe Travels!

              Are you looking to kill time in the Fox Cities? If so, Here's a couple of suggestions. The Fox Cities are a collection of cities, villages and towns along the Fox River, which resides in Northeastern Wisconsin.

Expo 2020 Dubai Sustainability Pavilion Building

Expo 2020 Dubai Sustainability Pavilion Building, Architect, UAE Design Project Photos

Expo 2020 Dubai Sustainability Pavilion Design

6 October 2021

Design: Grimshaw Architects

Photos by Phil Handforth

Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion at EXPO 2020 Dubai

Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion, opened to the public in 2021 as one of the top three attractions of the Dubai Expo 2020, and aims to illuminate the ingenuity and possibility of architecture as society looks to intelligent strategies for future sustainable living.

photograph : Dany Eid / Expo 2020

Drawing inspiration from complex natural processes like photosynthesis, the dynamic form of the Pavilion is in service to its function, capturing energy from sunlight and fresh water from humid air. The relationship of building to site, and to its physical and cultural contexts is critical, as the facility’s strength lies in its capacity to demonstrate a new way of living sustainably in a challenging desert environment.

Sited in a prominent location, the Pavilion structure works in tandem with the considered landscape of demonstration gardens, winding pathways and shaded enclaves to create an aura of magic punctuated by the sights, smells and tactile opportunities of nature. The gardens are both experiential and functional, setting the stage for the exhibition contents within and creating shaded gathering areas that will manage and distribute crowds while providing retail, food and beverage opportunities.

When creating a building with a goal of generating its own energy and water in a harsh climate, the solution cannot be driven by a single aspect of the design. To achieve net-zero, the design required a series of technologies, building systems and design solutions to act in unison. This self-contained, micro-ecosystem resulted from a combination of strategies: optimizing the natural conditions inherent in its location; working with and within them to maximize efficiency; and supplementing them with pioneering sustainable technologies to create innovative solutions

The design is driven by maximizing efficiency which it does by seeking shade in the one place available: below the ground. The Pavilion uses the insulating properties of the earth to shield it from the harsh ambient temperatures which can soar to 50 degrees in the warmer months.

photo : Dany Eid / Expo 2020

Most of the accommodation is below grade and cased with an earth roof system, creating a substantial barrier to help reduce its cooling loads and conserve energy. The above ground surfaces are clad with a gabion rainscreen wall – sourced with local stone from the Hajar Mountains – which provides enough thermal mass to absorb the heat while the stone’s natural color reflects the sun.

Flora and fauna sourced from the surrounding deserts – including some species that have been never been cultivated by humans – are arranged on the planted roofs and throughout the gardens, creating a water efficient landscape that functions through a series of closed loop systems designed to filter, supply and recycle water. The framing of these local topographical and floral features, combined with the technologies of water recycling and reuse, provide visitors a newfound appreciation of the unique region and its biodiversity. The site also includes areas for productive agricultural landscape featuring halophytic agriculture and other testing beds.

The culmination of the building’s systems can be found in the heart of the Pavilion, its large exterior courtyard. Borrowing from the vernacular of the region, the courtyard provides a large, passively cooled space for visitors. During the design, thermodynamic studies charting the prevailing breezes were used to shape the courtyard to allow desirable cool south-westerly breezes to enter while blocking warmer winds.

Soaring over the courtyard, the Pavilion’s canopy accommodates more than 6,000 sqm of ultra-efficient monocrystalline photovoltaic cells embedded in glass panels. The combination of the cell and the glass casing allow the building to harness solar energy while providing shade and daylighting to the visitors below. The experience in the courtyard is of being beneath a large shade tree with dappled light projecting onto the surfaces below. The form of the canopy works with the courtyard to direct cool air in, while simultaneously exhausting low-lying hot air through a chimney effect at the centre.

The canopy also serves as a large collection area for stormwater and dew that replenishes the building’s water system. The result is a structure that combines the most advanced technology in solar capture and a clear understanding of the natural conditions of the site to actively generate energy while passively cooling and enhancing the experience of the visitor. With over 6,000 sqm of exhibition space, the Sustainability Pavilion will enjoy a long life after Expo is over, transforming into a science museum and expanding on its mission of exploring sustainable practices and the critical stewardship of our fragile planet.

ENERGY E TREES The Sustainability Pavilion is complemented by an installation of Energy Trees which contribute toward its goal of producing its own energy. Nineteen E-trees ranging from 15-18m in diameter are dispersed throughout the site and provide 28% of the energy required to power the building. Inspired by the Dragon’s Blood, a tree found only on Socotra, an island 200 miles off the coast of Yemen, the E-Tree is designed to be a deployable freestanding shade structure that harvests the sun’s energy. The structure is constructed from steel and complex composites and has been optimized to support an 18m photovoltaic array.

Taking further cues from nature, the array follows the sun in the same manner as a sunflower, rotating 180 degrees throughout the course of the day to maximize the energy yield and increase the efficiency of the solar cells, before returning to its original position at night. Bespoke trapezoidal panels composed of highly efficient monocrystalline solar cells, embedded within three layers of glass, provide shade below without casting severe shadows or blocking views to the sky.

Supporting the array is an engineered carbon fibre structure inspired by the design of the steering wheel of a yacht. The structural design maximizes strength in its shape, with radial branches encircled by a compression ring while decreasing the load of the structure itself. Carbon fibre was chosen for its light weight which allows the form to extend unsupported for up to nine meters in all directions.

The E-Trees have become an integral part of both the exhibition and the Pavilion site – showcasing and educating visitors on the research on solar harnessing and panel technology – while at the same time, serving as an integral part of the systems that contributes to a net zero energy goal of the building.

photo : Dany Eid / Expo 2020

Terra Expo 2020 Dubai Sustainability Pavilion Design – Building Information

Project Data:

Client: Emaar Properties & Expo 2020 Dubai

Location: Expo Road Dubai South, Jebel Ali P.O. Box 2020 Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Website: https://ift.tt/3FmYDo0 Completion date: January 2021 Gross square footage: 17,000 sqm Project cost: confidential

Project Team:

Grimshaw: architect Buro Happold: engineering Desert Ink: landscape architecture

photo : Dany Eid / Expo 2020

Other Consultants:

Rice Perry Ellis: local architect Sherwood Design Engineers: civil engineering, water management Cerami: AV, IT, acoustics, security Tricon: food service Orca : crowd flow RWDI: climate analysis Thinc Design: exhibition design Eden Project: exhibition content TAW Weiss: maintenance Arch4Blind: accessibility Charcoal Blue: theatre design Lord Cultural: operations Friday Group: specifications

photo : Dany Eid / Expo 2020

Grimshaw Design Team:

Andrew Whalley – Chairman – Partner in Charge Matthew Utley – Principal – Director of Middle East Operations Mark Rhoads – Associate Principal – Project Director Casimir Zdanius – Associate Principal – Industrial Design Lead

Associate Principals: Iouyu Chen, Robert Young, George Hauner, Croz Crozling, Andrew Anderson

Associates: Jorge Salgado, Aimee Duquette, Aaron Vaden Youmans, Ross Goldsworthy, Woojae Sung, Andrea Debilio

Design Team: Zach Fine, Augustine Savage, Kyle Day, Renua Itsueli, Fernando Fisbein, Hannah Park, Anthony Mopty, Joana Torres, Justin Brammer, Mehnaj Tabassum, Diba Dayani, Mason Nabors, Albert Hsu, Kurt Hanzlik, Patricia McKee, Fan Cao, Kyle Spence, Vincent Velasquez, Max Dowd, Wooyoung Choi, Leland Jobson, David Mans, Greg Smith, Konrad Sobon, Raphael Ogoe, Alexandra Danciulescu

Photos: Phil Handforth

Sustainability Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai Design: Grimshaw Architects image courtesy of architects Sustainability Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai

Grimshaw

Expo 2020 Pavilion Abu Dhabi Sustainability

Expo 2020 Dubai Sustainability Pavilion building design images / information received 061021 from CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati Architects

Location: Jebel Ali, Dubai, UAE

Dubai 2020 Expo Pavilions

Dubai Expo UK Pavilion Design: Es Devlin photo by Alin Constantin ; image courtesy of Es Devlin Expo 2020 Dubai UK Pavilion Building

Dubai Expo Swedish Pavilion Building Design: Alessandro Ripellino Architects, Studio Adrien Gardère and Luigi Pardo Architetti photo courtesy of Swedish government Dubai Expo Swedish Pavilion Building

Dubai 2020 Expo Pavilions Design: Santiago Calatrava, Foster + Partners, BIG and Grimshaw Architects image courtesy of architects Dubai 2020 Expo Pavilions

2020 Expo Dubai Luxembourgish Pavilion Design: METAFORM Architects image courtesy of architects 2020 Expo Dubai Luxembourg Pavilion Building

Dubai World Expo 2010 Masterplan Design: HOK / Populous Dubai World Expo Masterplan

Grimshaw Architects

Dubai World Expo

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Abu Dhabi Architecture Designs – chronological list

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Hyperloop Pods and Portals Design: BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group image from architects studio Hyperloop Pods and Portals in Dubai

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Nicole Awai

A very multimedia artist: painting, sculpture, photography, found objects, etc. 

Lots of work with Caribbean and American Landscapes and appearances. 

In Trinidad there's the contrast from the ‘norm’ of people of color as the majority/in control… not a tourist economy… multiple perspectives on something. 

Use of Ooze: 

Ooze starts to appear around 2000/2001 she feels it came into solid being right after leaving the studio/museum. She felt that the black color of the ooze has particular significance. Something about black ornaments? People becoming aware of things… Antebellum flip doll, plantation mistress vs (slave?). Embodiment of local ephemera, tropes take on a physical form. Double sided figure as an abstraction. Local ephemera… the world of in-between. Social concepts manifest in the world as amalgamations (amalgams). Projections of ideas, multiplicity, different perspectives. Black ooze symbolized/encapsulated many ideas… natural world oozing materiality… we are part of the earth beneath our feet (molecular) oil, natural gas compression of years, everything interconnected. Reminiscent of pollution. 2017: things came together… ooze came to represent the vistas… second meaning.. view of a historical or anticipated sight specifically… implication of time… time as elastic not linear. Connotations of space and materiality… idea of time within space. 

Oozing red white and blue… was placed in such a manner that is nicely contrasted with some classical Europe looking piece, nice tension of colonialism. Each color owns different colors in different ways… red white and blue are the colors of a ton of flags… “tension springs”. I have always associated the phrase “red white and blue” with the US, but I know realize that that’s kind if strange. I have known for a long time that many other countries also use these colors, but continue to associate them with the US. I guess it’s because I’ve grown up here, and especially during the forth of july theres a push of using those colors? 

Made ceramic figures in both black and white… made with the same ceramics as sinks/toilet bowls. 

Use of Nail-polish: 

At first nail polish as a map legend in drawings… naming of colors… shift in life 90’s ish color names started reflecting cultural stuff… colors like drama queen, I’m not a tourist, I vant to be a lone star(?), My empire my rules, one piece a straight up homage to prince with the nail polish colors sultry and risk taker. Briefly mentioned racial connotations of dark polishes. Nail polish names revolving around negative/sexual connotations for dark polishes. Finally found a dark polish with the positive name invincible. 

I’m not really into nail polish myself, so I never knew that colors had such crazy names! I decided to look up how they are named and found this mildly interesting article. https://www.elitedaily.com/p/suzi-weiss-fischmann-names-opi-nail-polishes-for-a-living-youll-wish-you-had-her-job-8629005 

She’s multimedia, but everything comes from paintings. Wanted the idea of a painting coming from the corner. Circular symbols and double headed bird-like looking things… image of alchemist… sailors and soldiers monument. Medieval science of alchemy… thought they could turn metals into precious metals, cyphers and codes, there are her codes. Also thinking about creation myths, at every stage of history gain creation myths, explain what people know at that point in time. Similarities among creation myths globally. I found myself drawn to this piece, especially some of the close up photos she had in her presentation. Unfortunately the only photo I could find when I went to look for it was taken further out. 

NYT got in contact, wanted to commission for an op art (not op ed) first anniversary of the unite the right rally in Virginia, protestor killed. Envision a monument “new monuments for a new era” New monument where monuments taken down… Dred Scott involved… and one of her grad students… Kenny Robinson… 6 ppl. I liked how the final piece for this one looked a lot! 

Monument… Henry ward Beecher monument… noticed and really took a look, look at the African American woman figure compared to two little white children on the other side. Kids have very generic looks, but the black woman had such a specific look that she must have been from a model. She symbolizes abolitionism, constantly in the gesture of admiration. Wanted to make a work about her, put her back into her own history. “Now you see me, fearless”. “Absecere” “Drawn away” She’s drawn out of history then back in, multiplying her. I personally was particularly drawn to the several works Awai made using the woman from the statue. She has a really interesting expression, and really holds her own even when taken away from her original context of the statue. 

Sorry telling of slavery, thinking of people who felt that death was an escape/flight. 

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, to haiti with love. ← I really like this title, it’s clever and flows off the tongue in an interesting way. 

Language: fascinated and directed by what we think we know, language of blueprint. Once we think we know what something looks like we think we know what it is. Trying to use misdirection with keys, then she decided to maybe use them as a direction. Glue down code… names of nail polishes. 

Never thought of herself as a political artist, since 2018 realized that her works don’t need to look a certain way to get across a certain meaning. So many ways and contexts to see even if they weren’t necessarily the original intention.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed her talk and artwork. I had many valuable chances to think about new concepts or more in depth about concepts I had only briefly interacted with. 

Scientists estimate solar nebula's lifetime

About 4.6 billion years ago, an enormous cloud of hydrogen gas and dust collapsed under its own weight, eventually flattening into a disk called the solar nebula. Most of this interstellar material contracted at the disk's center to form the sun, and part of the solar nebula's remaining gas and dust condensed to form the planets and the rest of our solar system. Now scientists from MIT and their colleagues have estimated the lifetime of the solar nebula - a key stage during which much of the solar system evolution took shape.

This new estimate suggests that the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn must have formed within the first 4 million years of the solar system's formation. Furthermore, they must have completed gas-driven migration of their orbital positions by this time.

"So much happens right at the beginning of the solar system's history," says Benjamin Weiss, professor of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences at MIT. "Of course the planets evolve after that, but the large-scale structure of the solar system was essentially established in the first 4 million years."

Weiss and MIT postdoc Huapei Wang, the first author of this study, report their results in the journal Science. Their co-authors are Brynna Downey, Clement Suavet, and Roger Fu from MIT; Xue-Ning Bai of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Jun Wang and Jiajun Wang of Brookhaven National Laboratory; and Maria Zucolotto of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

Read more ~ SpaceDaily

Image: Depiction of the solar nebula dispersal in action about 3 million years after the solar system formed.     Image courtesy NASA/JHUAPL.

SCIENTISTS ESTIMATE SOLAR NEBULA’S LIFETIME: STUDY FINDS THE SWIRLING GAS & DUST DISK DISAPPEARED WITHIN THE SOLAR SYSTEM’S FIRST 4 MILLION YEARS About 4.6 billion years ago, an enormous cloud of hydrogen gas and dust collapsed under its own weight, eventually flattening into a disk called the solar nebula. Most of this interstellar material contracted at the disk’s center to form the Sun, and part of the solar nebula’s remaining gas and dust condensed to form the planets and the rest of our solar system. Now scientists from MIT and their colleagues have estimated the lifetime of the solar nebula -- a key stage during which much of the solar system took shape. This new estimate suggests that the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn must have formed within the first 4 million years of the solar system’s formation. Furthermore, they must have completed gas-driven migration of their orbital positions by this time. “So much happens right at the beginning of the solar system’s history,” says Benjamin Weiss, professor of Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences at MIT. “Of course the planets evolve after that, but the large-scale structure of the solar system was essentially established in the first 4 million years.” Weiss and MIT postdoc Huapei Wang, the first author of this study, report their results today in the journal Science [http://science.sciencemag.org]. Their co-authors are Brynna Downey, Clement Suavet, and Roger Fu from MIT; Xue-Ning Bai of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Jun Wang and Jiajun Wang of Brookhaven National Laboratory; and Maria Zucolotto of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro. Spectacular Recorders By studying the magnetic orientations in pristine samples of ancient meteorites that formed 4.653 billion years ago, the team determined that the solar nebula lasted around 3 to 4 million years. This is a more precise figure than previous estimates, which placed the solar nebula’s lifetime at somewhere between 1 and 10 million years. The team came to its conclusion after carefully analyzing angrites, which are some of the oldest and most pristine of planetary rocks. Angrites are igneous rocks, many of which are thought to have erupted onto the surfaces of asteroids very early in the solar system’s history and then quickly cooled, freezing their original properties -- including their composition and paleomagnetic signals -- in place. Scientists view angrites as exceptional recorders of the early solar system, particularly as the rocks also contain high amounts of uranium, which they can use to precisely determine their age. “Angrites are really spectacular,” Weiss says. “Many of them look like what might be erupting on Hawaii, but they cooled on a very early planetesimal.” Weiss and his colleagues analyzed four angrites that fell to Earth at different places and times. “One fell in Argentina, and was discovered when a farm worker was tilling his field,” Weiss says. “It looked like an Indian artifact or bowl, and the landowner kept it by this house for about 20 years, until he finally decided to have it analyzed, and it turned out to be a really rare meteorite.” The other three meteorites were discovered in Brazil, Antarctica, and the Sahara Desert. All four meteorites were remarkably well-preserved, having undergone no additional heating or major compositional changes since they originally formed. Measuring Tiny Compasses The team obtained samples from all four meteorites. By measuring the ratio of uranium to lead in each sample, previous studies had determined that the three oldest formed around 4.653 billion years ago. The researchers then measured the rocks’ remnant magnetization using a precision magnetometer in the MIT Paleomagnetism Laboratory. “Electrons are little compass needles, and if you align a bunch of them in a rock, the rock becomes magnetized,” Weiss explains. “Once they’re aligned, which can happen when a rock cools in the presence of a magnetic field, then they stay that way. That’s what we use as records of ancient magnetic fields.” When they placed the angrites in the magnetometer, the researchers observed very little remnant magnetization, indicating there was very little magnetic field present when the angrites formed. The team went a step further and tried to reconstruct the magnetic field that would have produced the rocks’ alignments, or lack thereof. To do so, they heated the samples up, then cooled them down again in a laboratory-controlled magnetic field. “We can keep lowering the lab field and can reproduce what’s in the sample,” Weiss says. “We find only very weak lab fields are allowed, given how little remnant magnetization is in these three angrites.” Specifically, the team found that the angrites’ remnant magnetization could have been produced by an extremely weak magnetic field of no more than 0.6 microtesla, 4.653 billion years ago, or, about 4 million years after the start of the solar system. In 2014, Weiss’ group analyzed other ancient meteorites that formed within the solar system’s first 2 to 3 million years, and found evidence of a magnetic field that was about 10-100 times stronger -- about 5-50 microteslas. “It’s predicted that once the magnetic field drops by a factor of 10-100 in the inner solar system, which we’ve now shown, the solar nebula goes away really quickly, within 100,000 years,” Weiss says. “So even if the solar nebula hadn’t disappeared by 4 million years, it was basically on its way out.” The Planets Align The researchers’ new estimate is much more precise than previous estimates, which were based on observations of faraway stars. “What’s more, the angrites’ paleomagnetism constrains the lifetime of our own solar nebula, while astronomical observations obviously measure other faraway solar systems,” Wang adds. “Since the solar nebula lifetime critically affects the final positions of Jupiter and Saturn, it also affects the later formation of the Earth, our home, as well as the formation of other terrestrial planets.” Now that the scientists have a better idea of how long the solar nebula persisted, they can also narrow in on how giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn formed. Giant planets are mostly made of gas and ice, and there are two prevailing hypotheses for how all this material came together as a planet. One suggests that giant planets formed from the gravitational collapse of condensing gas, like the Sun did. The other suggests they arose in a two-stage process called core accretion, in which bits of material smashed and fused together to form bigger rocky, icy bodies. Once these bodies were massive enough, they could have created a gravitational force that attracted huge amounts of gas to ultimately form a giant planet. According to previous predictions, giant planets that form through gravitational collapse of gas should complete their general formation within 100,000 years. Core accretion, in contrast, is typically thought to take much longer, on the order of 1 to several million years. Weiss says that if the solar nebula was around in the first 4 million years of solar system formation, this would give support to the core accretion scenario, which is generally favored among scientists. “The gas giants must have formed by 4 million years after the formation of the solar system,” Weiss says. “Planets were moving all over the place, in and out over large distances, and all this motion is thought to have been driven by gravitational forces from the gas. We’re saying all this happened in the first 4 million years.” IMAGE....By studying the remanent magnetizations in ancient meteorites, an MIT team has determined that the solar nebula — the vast of disc of gas and dust that ultimately gave rise to the solar system — lasted around 3 to 4 million years. Image: Hernan Canellas

Learn about why you can blame redlining for US cities being so segregated; why Earth’s magnetic north pole is drifting every year; and how virtual therapy can be just as effective as in-person therapy.

Redlining is the totally legal reason why US cities are so segregated by Steffie Drucker

NPR. (2020). Why Cities Are Still So Segregated | Let’s Talk | NPR [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5FBJyqfoLM 

‌The Root. (2020). How Redlining Shaped Black America As We Know It | Unpack That [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o-yD0wGxAc 

New Deal | Definition, Programs, Summary, & Facts | Britannica. (2020). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/New-Deal 

FDR and Housing Legislation - FDR Presidential Library & Museum. (2012). Fdrlibrary.org. https://www.fdrlibrary.org/housing 

National Housing Act Definition | Bankrate.com. (2020, May 12). Bankrate. https://www.bankrate.com/glossary/n/national-housing-act/ 

Mitchell, B. (2018, March 20). HOLC “redlining” maps: The persistent structure of segregation and economic inequality » NCRC. NCRC. https://ncrc.org/holc/ 

Alix, L. (2019, December 16). Wells Fargo, Philadelphia reach settlement in redlining lawsuit. American Banker; American Banker. https://www.americanbanker.com/news/wells-fargo-philadelphia-reach-settlement-in-redlining-lawsuit 

Perry, A. M., & Harshbarger, D. (2019, October 14). America’s formerly redlined neighborhoods have changed, and so must solutions to rectify them. Brookings; Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/research/americas-formerly-redlines-areas-changed-so-must-solutions/ 

Earth's magnetic north pole is drifting every year by Cameron Duke

Livermore, P. W., Finlay, C. C., & Bayliff, M. (2020). Recent north magnetic pole acceleration towards Siberia caused by flux lobe elongation. Nature Geoscience, 13(5), 387–391. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0570-9

McRae, M. (2020). Earth’s Magnetic North Is Moving From Canada to Russia, And We May Finally Know Why. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/russia-is-stealing-magnetic-north-from-canada-and-this-could-be-what-s-behind-it

Mohr, K. (2020). Geodynamo | Earth. NASA.gov. https://earth.gsfc.nasa.gov/geo/research/geodynamo 

‌Glatzmaier, G. (1996). The Geodynamo. UCSC.edu. https://websites.pmc.ucsc.edu/~glatz/geodynamo.html 

Toomey, E. (2019, August 7). Earth’s Magnetic Field Could Take Longer to Flip Than Previously Thought. Smithsonian Magazine; Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/earths-magnetic-field-could-take-longer-flip-previously-thought-180972843/ 

What Will Happen When Earth’s North And South Pole Flip? (2018). [YouTube Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Ggs7nUjxA

Virtual therapy can be just as effective as in-person therapy by Andrea Michelson

Effects of internet CBT for health anxiety on par with face-to-face treatment. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-05/ki-eoi051220.php 

‌Axelsson, E., Andersson, E., Ljótsson, B., Björkander, D., Hedman-Lagerlöf, M., & Hedman-Lagerlöf, E. (2020). Effect of Internet vs Face-to-Face Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Health Anxiety. JAMA Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0940 

What you need to know before choosing online therapy. (2015). American Psychological Association. APA.org. https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/online-therapy 

‌Suzannah Weiss. (2018, June 7). How to Know if You’d Do Better With Online Therapy Versus In-Person. Vice; vice. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbqp48/is-in-person-therapy-better-than-online-therapy 

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY 

Drew Harvell, Professor Of Ecology And Evolutionary Biology, Is Featured On The Human Health And The Planets Health Panel.

Four Cornellians will participate in panels at the summit on April 21. Drew Harvell, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is featured on the Human Health and the Planets Health panel. The panel Doing More Using Less includes Todd Cowen, professor of civil engineering and the Kathy Dwyer Marble and Curt Marble Faculty Director of Energy at the Atkinson Center, and Jeff Weiss 79, co-chair and managing director of Distributed Sun and beEdison. David Lodge , the Francis J. DiSalvo Director of the Atkinson Center, will discuss how new technology can help humanity track invasive species, pathogens or poachers at the panel CSI: Earth . The summit begins with a livestreamed plenary panel , Opening Our Minds, featuring Cornell President Emeritus David Skorton, secretary of the Smithsonian. That panel, moderated by journalist Andrew Revkin, also features the International Space Station crew. The Atkinson Center will host a booth (free and open to the public) at the Reagan Building atrium, where visitors can pet a cute beagle, listen to a whale chorus and gain perspective on the environment. It will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., April 21-22, and 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 23. Robert Barker/University Photography Deborah Membreno, a graduate student in the field of global development, creates a sign for the upcoming Science March in Washington. The beagle, Cannon, was born by in vitro fertilization at Cornells College of Veterinary Medicine in 2015. The IVF breakthrough opens the door for conserving endangered canid species. The whale recordings from smart buoys are used for the Right Whale Listening Network, courtesy of the Lab of Ornithology. Discover how insulation which includes your clothing works by taking a thermal selfie. Get more than a shred of detail by watching demonstrations of the Fiberizer , the recycling textile device created by Tasha Lewis, assistant professor of fiber science and apparel design. Science March More than 200 graduate and professional students will travel by bus to the April 22 Science March. Arriving in Washington on Friday, April 21, several dozen Cornell students will attend the communication workshops presented by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They will spend the afternoon learning to describe and articulate their research. This trip is organized by graduate students Sabrina Solouki and Charlotte Levy of the student group Advancing Science and Policy . Other Cornell students will ascend Capitol Hill that afternoon for meetings with Senate and House representatives of their home districts. In the evening, alumni and students will gather for a networking dinner in Washington. Mark Bayer 92, former chief of staff for Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Melanie Stansbury, M.S. 07, a professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, have been invited to speak on how to engage in science policy. For the Saturday morning Science March, Cornellians will gather at Hancock Park , at C Street and Seventh Street SW, at 9:30 a.m. The park is located about a block south of the Smithsonians Hirschhorn Museum. Cornells Advancing Science and Policy students will return to Ithaca late Saturday night. Another bus full of Cornell students will depart for the Science March at 2 a.m. on April 22. This bus was organized with students, faculty and staff by Taryn Mattice, chaplain for Cornells Protestant Cooperative Ministry.

Source: http://news.cornell.edu/print/45241

Scientists Estimate Solar Nebula's Lifetime

About 4.6 billion years ago, an enormous cloud of hydrogen gas and dust collapsed under its own weight, eventually flattening into a disk called the solar nebula. Most of this interstellar material contracted at the disk's center to form the Sun, and part of the solar nebula's remaining gas and dust condensed to form the planets and the rest of our solar system.

Now scientists from MIT and their colleagues have estimated the lifetime of the solar nebula - a key stage during which much of the solar system took shape.

This new estimate suggests that the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn must have formed within the first 4 million years of the solar system's formation. Furthermore, they must have completed gas-driven migration of their orbital positions by this time.

"So much happens right at the beginning of the solar system's history," says Benjamin Weiss, professor of Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences at MIT. "Of course the planets evolve after that, but the large-scale structure of the solar system was essentially established in the first 4 million years."

Weiss and MIT postdoc Huapei Wang, the first author of this study, report their results in the journal Science. Their co-authors are Brynna Downey, Clement Suavet, and Roger Fu from MIT; Xue-Ning Bai of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Jun Wang and Jiajun Wang of Brookhaven National Laboratory; and Maria Zucolotto of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

Read more ~ SpaceDaily

Image: Scale and Compass for nebula NGC 248    Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, K. Sandstrom (University of California, San Diego), and the SMIDGE team